Somebody's Somebody
by Guardinthena
Summary: With the discovery of Cybertron and the Autobots there, Optimus has to deal with a splintered Autobot army, new faces, a replinished Decepticon army and a new 'Con threat codenamed Project: Primus. If ever he wished he had somebody to turn to, it's now.
1. Chapter 1

**Transformers: Somebody's Somebody**

By: Guardinthena

Genre: Romance/angst

Bio: The Decepticons are out to express their _love_ for the Autobots by sending The Ark and its crew into the sun via use of a massive spacebridge. When Optimus Prime leads a strike team against them, he is injured and Phage absorbs his spark/Matrix to confuse the Decepticons by faking his death. When Megatron discovers the farce, he sends the Decepticons after her to reclaim the Matrix. Phage is captured, and Soundwave reveals that she has more than the Matrix to hide from them.

I started this as a challenge put out by Water-Smurf over on DeviantArt. The challenge was to randomly pick a song from a list and write a fanfic on it, but it couldn't be too short and it had to be done in a week. I wanted to do a special fanfic for Valentine's Day and I came up with this. The rest of the chapters are to follow shortly. Promise. ;P

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**Chapter 1**

'_**Wish I had somebody**_

_Wish I was somebody's baby_

_Somebody's somebody_

_Somebody's somebody'_

Heavy clanking filled _The Ark_'s halls, interrupting the Earth love song playing over the PA system. Desperately, Optimus Prime tried to push the nonsense song out of his head as he reluctantly made his way to the Medbay. The aura he gave off as he marched headlong down the golden halls was one of impatience. His azure optics were hard, portraying the conceivable frown that would have been apparent on his faceplates if not for his mask. He had better things to be doing than going in for a routine maintence check up, even if it was to inspect the latest injury he had suffered in the last Decepticon raid. His repair systems already told him what Ratchet would take an Earth hour and more to figure out, even with his input. His system repairs had already healed his injury and he just needed a new chasing for his side, but Ratchet would drag everything out like normal until he was certain that all his systems were in peak operational status.

He emitted a growl as he turned the next corner sharply. "Let's just get this over with quick and –!"

"Ouff!"

He collided with something small and green as he whipped around the corner. Knocked out of his reviee, Optimus blinked as he looked down at the Autobot he had knocked over. His first thought was that he had ran Hound over, but as he got a second glance at the 'bot sitting in a heap on the floor he realized that the slender body and feminine curves couldn't have been Hound at all.

"Phage, I'm–" He extended his hand for her but the femme refused and picked herself up, her panels twitching in annoyance. Prime retracted his hand and stood watching her as she dusted herself off of invisible grim.

"It's fine." She muttered without looking up at him, cutting him off. "Excuse me."

Without another word, the femme slipped around him and disappeared down another hallway. Prime spared her a glance before he continued forward at a little less speed. Grumbling to himself, he mumbled, "Looks like I'm not the only one in a foul mood today."

He arrived at Medbay sooner than he would have liked, but not fast enough. As he stepped into Medbay he was already wishing that time would jump and that this would be behind him and that he'd be off somewhere else. Anywhere else: in the command center, in his office, outside enjoying the nice Oregon weather. Come to think of it, he recalled Spike gathering some Autobots together for a game of basketball.

"Reporting in, Ratchet."

The white and black trimmed CMO glanced up from a medberth where he was engaged in another routine maintenance checkup with Ironhide. The two mechs glanced over his way, Ratchet with a look of frustration and Ironhide with a look that seemed to say that he'd found his savior.

"Prahme, quick! Get me outta here!"

"You shut your vocal modulator off before I do so myself! And you! You'll have to wait over there while I finish up Ironhide."

Optimus crossed his arms over his chestplate as he fixed Ratchet with a glare. "I have other matters that I need to attend to, Ratchet. The sooner you can get this over with the better."

"Hey!" Barked Ironhide, "I'ah was here first, so yer just gonna have ta wait yer turn unless you tell Ratchet that my servos don't need any further greesing. They're just fine as they are."

"Just fine!" Ratchet all but yelled at Ironhide. "Just fine! They're grinding on each other! That's why they're hurting you you thick-plated, lead-headed –"

"Ya ol' rusted scrap heap."

"–screw loose –"

"Ratchet!"

The CMO shot Prime a swift glare over his shoulder strut, then grudgingly relented. "Fine. If it's so important than give me a second. I'll call Phage back in."

His audios glitched. They had too. He blinked at Ratchet, unfolding his arms as he repeated, a bit surprisingly, "Phage?"

"Yes Phage now get your fragging aft over on that medberth. She'll be back in in a few seconds."

He didn't move from his spot next to the door. "You're going to let Phage examine me?"

Ratchet shot him a look. "What's the matter Prime? Don't trust my protégé?"

He threw Ratchet a scowl as he returned back without missing a beat, "I just didn't realize you let rookies operate on high-ranking officers. Bad form Ratchet, what if one turned out to be a Decepticon double-agent. I could be terminated."

Ratchet made a rude noise as he turned back to work on Ironhide. "Ptf! Yeah, and the day that that happens is the day that the Pitt freezes over. You'll be just fine with Phage. It's a simple little medical examine for Primus's sake."

"Then why not get her to work on Ironhide while you tend to my examine?"

"Because I'm already working on him! And dealing with Ironhide's foul temper requires a type of special care that I've developed over the years. Phage hasn't yet."

Ironhide guffawed at that. "Yer ah son of ah 'Con, Ratchet. Letting Phage work on Prime. He's in ah worse mood than I'ah am!"

"I said shut it or I'll wield it, and I meant it!"

Ironhide and Ratchet degraded down into a series of growls and the occasional snappy comment from there, leaving Optimus completely out of the loop. Not that he minded in the least. Scowling as before, Prime grudgingly slipped up onto the nearest medberth and waited for Phage to return to the Medbay, not that he had long to wait. The femme came sweeping in not more than twenty-five. four seconds later, a fine blue hue on her normally white cheeks and a glare on her face that would put his to shame. She looked momentarily around the Medbay until she spotted him, then immediately threw her hands up into the air and went into a tirade.

"Why! Out of all the maintenance checkups you avoid, you didn't avoid this one. You sand-blasted, son of a screw!"

Everyone _was_ in a foul mood today!

He leveled a steady glare on her as she approached. He knew she wasn't asking a question, but he found himself snapping off a sarcastic remark all the same. "I think I might take a second look at your work schedule and rearrange the time you're spending with Ratchet. You seem to be transforming into him."

Ironhide laughed from across the Medbay. "Like we need another Ratchet around –_fritz_!"

"I warned you! Now just lie there and be still!"

Both he and Phage ignored Ratchet and Ironhide's ongoing feud (not that Ironhide could do much more than mime feuding) as she advanced on him, her dark blue optics flaring in fine form. "You could have just waited another thirty minutes and Ratchet would have been done and he wouldn't have called me!"

"No I wouldn't of."

Phage shot a glare off Ratchet's way, but the CMO missed it. She raptly turned her attention back on her commander-in-chief as she moved to gather the standard medical equipment for the examine. Her speed was brisk as she collected what she needed and aptly marched straight up to him with a scanner.

Optimus suppressed the sigh that he wanted to release. He really had no time to be here, especially no time to be dealing with an irate Phage. Ratchet was one thing, he'd make some rude comments about what he should have done to avoid his little incident, degrade him for it, and somehow joke about it at his expense all at the same time. Somedays it got on his nerves, others it amused him. Today he had to deal with Phage, and quite frankly he knew that when she got into a mood like the one now, there wouldn't be any talking, just scowling and glares that meant death. She was so mad about whatever it was that had set her off before Ratchet had called her back in that he could practically feel the cold aura she was giving off.

She was already some way into examining over his systems when he muttered to her, so that only she could hear, "How about you just fudge the results and we can both get out of here."

The femme paused in her work. The layer of ice seemed to melt from her face momentarily as she blinked up at him, knocked out of her own reviee. "What?"

Optimus Prime jerked his head off in Ratchet's direction, whose back was still turned to them. "Just pretend we did this and mark something down in the computer. My repair systems have already taken care of my injury."

Her optics narrowed on him as a fine little frown began to twist her soft green lips. "Suuuure. I could do that. Oh! But wait! Ratchet knows the exact time it should take for this little examination to be over! And why? Gasp! It's because he's been your doc for over nine million years!"

His frustration was now directed at her as his scowling took on the form of a dark thundercloud. He hardly found her humor anything but funny. "As your commander I'm authorizing you to hurry this up!" That threw her for a loop. The frown that seemed to be forever etched into her flexi-metal skin disappeared as easily as that, and in its place was a look of torn decision. Phage opened her mouth to say something but closed it just as quickly. Prime snagged the opportunity and leaned in, motioning over towards Ratchet again with his optics and then pointing down at his side. "Look, I have to get back on duty as soon as possible. I know Ratchet says that when I'm in Medbay he's the boss, but ignore him, he's blowing oil transmissions. Just change the casing and we can both get back to what we both need to be doing."

She hesitated even further, obviously torn between her desire to perform her job and whatever it was that she had been heading off to do when she had been relieved of her post. At length, she came to some decision and threw a cautionary glance at Ratchet's back. Once she'd determined that all was well and fine, she put the scanner down and moved off around the medberth, heading for a side storage room. She motioned for him to sit still and mouthed with her lips, 'I'll be right back.'

Prime adjusted his weight on the medberth as a smug smile started to tug at his lip components. Somedays, being leader had its advantages. _'Pitt, I should nudge to get Phage as my medical officer more if I can get out of these blasted examines all the more quicker.'_


	2. Chapter 2

Optimus tested his side gingerly as he and Phage strolled down the halls of _The Ark_ together. "You did a fair job with the wielding."

"Ratchet and Huffer taught me _fairly_ well." He picked up on the hint of humor she was attempting and couldn't help but smile himself from behind his battle mask. She giggled abruptly and added with a smirk, "Ratchet's going to kill me when he realizes what happened."

"I wouldn't worry much about it. What's one fudged medical exam compared to the hundreds I've conveniently missed?"

"Did I actually detect a sense of humor in that?" Phage retorted. Whatever foul mood had plaughed her before in the hall had seemed to disappear. As he glanced down at the smaller femme that stood roughly midway up his waist, he noted the gentle glow in her optics, the warm smile that stretched across her white flexi-metal face. Winter had thawed, if for the moment, and the sunshine that beamed through her touched him as well as put him in a better mood.

"What are you scheduled for right now anyway?" He didn't know why he asked that. The question had just popped right out of his vocal processor, but despite the layered meaning that the question posed, especially around this Earth holiday fast approaching called Valentine's Day, Phage didn't seem to think anything of it.

She shrugged as she walked beside him, in much better spirits now than when he had first bumped into her. "I'm off duty until tonight."

"What's tonight?"

She slid him a quirky smile as they turned one corner and headed down another hallway. In all honesty, he had no idea where they were even going. His feet just seemed to be carrying him wherever, and she was content to follow. "Don't you know, being my leader and all?"

"Shift duty manager is a rotational job. This week it's Trailbreaker."

"Ah."

"So what are you scheduled for tonight?"

"Rim patrol."

"Oh." Perhaps one of the most boring jobs available on _The Ark_, next to cleaning that was. A lot of 'bots hated sitting up on the top of the volcano and just watching the night sky for signs of Decepticons. Come to think of it, he needed to speak to Wheeljack about that security defense that they had been discussing building up there to get rid of that job.

"Things are so different around here now. "

Optimus found that it was his turn to blink. "Hmm?"

As was typical in Phage's fashion, her arms started to move about as she spoke as if she were trying it illiterate her point with motions with her arms. "Its…its, I don't know. _Different_. Everyone just seems like they suddenly have a lot of work to be doing ever since we found Cybertron."

"I don't understand."

She huffed as she frowned up at him. "Yeah ya do. I mean, before Ultra Magnus and Kup and all the others got here, before we found Cybertron and your Autobot Council, everything was so much more laxed. I'd catch you guys all the time just lounging around and enjoying yourselves, either with watching some soap-opera show or out playing football or…or something! Oh yeah, sure, when the Decepticons would finally rear themselves you'd drop everything and go to stop them, but how often did that actually _happen_? They were too preoccupied with trying to get the necessary resources to just remain _functional_! Now suddenly it's 'Ultra Magnus is here! Cybertron still exists! Shockwave is back and the Decepticons have a base!' and then wham! It's like somebody shouted out, 'Quick! Start acting like we were still at war and not on vacation for the last four million years!'"

Optimus didn't know whether to laugh at her comical explanation of their dilemma, or take it for its sobering real-life facts. Ever since they had found Cybertron things _had_ become more difficult. While they gained old allies so did the Decepticons. Shockwave had returned, along with other Decepticon forces to the rather depleted ranks of Megatron's army. In prior years they had outnumbered the Decepticons, and it had been their numbers that had managed to keep the Decepticons at bay, despite their better fighting techniques and weapons. Now, Megatron suddenly had a force at his back and the Autobots…there was still the Council that he had to deal with. His long absence had stirred up some power mongrels that refused to step down and let him lead as he had done for countless millennia before. The Autobot forces were practically split in half, leaving him in the same position that they had been in before they had found Cybertron. True, there were a few new faces, such as Hot Rod, Arcee, Moonracer, Kup, the Protectorbots, but it wasn't enough. He was starting to feel pressed. He could just _hear_Megatron laughing at him. He could _feel _the Decepticons moving in for the kill.

He was about to respond to Phage's insight into their situation when she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Prime came to a halt, staring at her quizzically. "Phage, what's –" he caught himself as he glanced down the long hallway stretching before them and caught sight of what it was she had just seen.

He hadn't meant too, but he had led them to the section of _The Ark _where he and the other Autobot officers had commissioned Sunstreaker (upon Phage's urging) to create the Hall of Reflection. Sunstreaker had shown his artistic side that he had been suppressing for several millennia and worked magic on the bleak halls of _The Ark_. On one side of the corridor was painted a seamless series of murals that depicted Cybertron back during the Golden Age. There stood the Spires of Iacon, proud and gleaming against a Cybertronian sunset. Further down, and with daylight quickly turning to night in the process, beyond several generic buildings and skyscrapers, was Nova Cronum, philosophical center of Cybertron, and just down from that was the legendary Crystal City. Further still, pass Maccadams Old Oil House and a few night clubs (undoubtedly the Terrible Twins twisted sense of humor, but one which the rest of the crew said to keep for laughs) was the Sonic Canyons. Pass the Sonic Canyons was depicted the Rust Sea, blended easily beyond with Hydrax Plateau, the primary spaceport and visitor processing on Cybertron. The scenery went on from dawn to dust, illustrated all the major points of Cybertron, capturing each special place of their planet's history down to the last detail. The other side of the hall however was much more somber and less reminiscence. The opposite wall reflected the images on the other side, expect it depicted each of those places, so highly respected and known, and showed them for what they had become after the war. The Spires of Iacon were stripped, some missing entirely, crumbled and destroyed long ago. Nothing but some Omega's de-armored claw tearing holes into the sky. The generic housing and work facilities were in a similar state of depression, the nightclubs were dark and uninviting, all except Maccadams Old Oil House which seemed to stand against the test of time and war just like it always was. Crystal City had been reduced to nothing more than broken fragments and shards, the Sonic Canyons had grown in size, gaping, threatening to devour Cybertron whole while the Rust Sea had become bone dry.

Optimus turned a weary optic away from the depressing Hall that wrenched both a sense of nostalgia out of him, anger, and sadness all at once. Optimus himself had never seen any other piece of artwork that Sunstreaker had ever done, but if he had, he would probably have to say that the Hall of Reflection was his greatest crowning masterpiece. It always struck his emotional capability chips every time he saw it.

But it wasn't the Hall itself that had stopped Phage in her tracks. It did not strike the same cords that it did with he and the other original crew. Where she, the Aerialbots, Dinobots, and other Autobots that had never seen Cybertron or its Golden Age gazed on it as if gazing through time and space, gazing into some temporal window in contemplation. He saw what she was really staring at, what had really got her to stop dead in her tracks.

Further down the Hall stood Hot Rod and Arcee entangled in each other's embrace. Kissing.

He could see Phage's cheeks turning blue again. He saw her scowl returning, that frown that could ignite Energon with a single look. Something else twisted her pale face too, something foreign, something he'd never seen her give before, an emotion he didn't think she had.

Jealousy.

Tension hung between the two parties. Hot Rod and Arcee had failed to notice them yet, but it hardly seemed to matter. Optimus could practically feel the air around him begin to boil, especially when the sudden silence between them brought to his attention the love songs playing over the PA system. It was that same song from before again, Jazz had some mixed CD he'd burning playing on repeat.

'_Watchin' lovers walkin'_

_Hand in hand, they pass me by_

_Wish I was one of them_

_Wish I had somebody_

_Wakin' up beside me_

_Looking into my eyes at night_

_I want a love to call my own_

_I want someone that I can hold_

_Want someone wanting me_

_Wanna feel how it feels to be'_

Abruptly Phage turned on her heel and started stomping her way back down the way they had come. Optimus was quick to follow after her and failed to note a startled Arcee and Hot Rod upon hearing Phage's clanking steps.

Her reaction to them had his CPU in a buzz. He'd never seen her react like that before, but then again, there'd never been any other femmes on base for her to compete with either. _'What's that even matter?'_ Prime thought to himself as he started after her. _'She's never given any 'bot a second glance anyway. What's got her so upset?'_

He didn't have the time to stop her and question her about her behavior, because at that exact moment he got an urgent call on his communiqué. Prime stopped short and activated the call, leaving Phage to storm off to some undisclosed location. It was probably better to let her cool off first anyway, rather than question her while she was agitated by whatever was bothering her. As he had seen in the Medbay and knew from multiple other occasions, she could be a pain the aft to deal with when she was in one of her foul tempers. She tended to have a rather snappy and smart-ass personality when she was mad.

As Optimus tore his optics off from her fleeing backside he recognized the caller id as Prowl's. "Optimus here, what's the emergency Prowl?"

Teletraan-1 has picked up on some Decepticon energy signatures in sector 3, Prime.

Optimus stared dumbfounded at the image of Prowl on his . "Again? That's the third time this week."

Three times too many to be coincidence.

"Agreed. Something's going on. Gather up a scout party and send them out. I'll be in the command center shortly. Optimus Prime out."

He cut the link and started barreling his way towards command. He didn't like the signs of the storm cloud gathering on the horizon, as the Earth saying went.


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note:** I just forgot to note that the song, 'Somebodys Somebody' belongs to the singer Christina Aguilera :P

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Optimus glanced up and down the row of Autobots that Prowl had slapped together for the scout party. There was Hound, who would be acting as team leader, Bumblebee, Spike, Windcharger and Phage. Prime did a double-glance at her and cocked an optical ridge, to which she returned with an unamused glare.

"How'd –" he began, but Phage had such a nasty way of cutting people off, especially when she was in one of her foul moods, which she was –again.

"Funny thing really, I was off duty so I was a perfect first pick for Prowl. Hilarity actually, given that if I had still been in Medbay doing your –"

"Wonderful choices, Prowl!" The Autobot Commander-in-Chief declared a bit too loudly, drawing a glare from Phage and a few curious glances from the scout party. The looks quickly dissipated however as Prowl took point at Prime's side and leveled them with his expressionless, collected stare. One that said that if they so much as twitched the wrong way, he'd make a note of it and bust them later for it. The look didn't escape any of them, not even Prime, whom he narrowed an optic at –a sign that he hadn't missed the stressed tension between the two and that he would likely be looking into it later.

"Your orders, Prime?"

Optimus drew himself up as he examined the small party of Autobots before him. He clasped his hands behind his back as he began. "I want you five to remember that this is nothing more than a simple scout mission. Find out what the Decepticons are doing and get out. No confrontations, no fighting. Not until we know what it is that we're dealing with. If none of you report back within six hours we are to assume mission failure and that the situation is critical."

"Affirmative, Prime." Saluted Hound as he stepped forward. "We'll sniff 'em out and return posthaste."

Optimus returned the salute. "Your all dismissed. May the Matrix be with you."

Hound and Windcharger transformed to vehicle mode and immediately started off. Bumblebee and Phage were slower to follow, as Bumblebee had to wait for Spike to settle himself in before taking off and Phage…hadn't even bothered to transform yet.

Optimus quirked an optical ridge at her again as she lingered at the entrance to _The Ark_, looking off where the others had gone. "Was there something you wanted to say, Phage?"

The femme blinked as she looked back at her superior officers, almost as if she were trying to pull herself out of some mental fog. "Oh, no. I just…had a weird little feeling is all." She didn't give him time to demand an explanation. She quickly transformed into her Honda motorcycle alt mode and sped off, leaving him and Prowl to glance sidelong at each other.

Prowl was the first to break the disconcerting silence settling between them. "What'd she mean by that?"

"Just nerves I'm sure." He wished he was as confident in his words as he sounded, but truth be told, he felt it too. It wasn't some physic call she'd received but basic, primordial urges crying out. It stirred in the bowl of his systems. Forewarning him of something terrible that lay just on the horizon. Prime shook it off and repeated, "Just nerves."

///

The scouting party returned just as the sun was starting to set. And not in as good a condition as when they set out –or with all their members. Prime and a few other officers escorted Windcharger and Phage into a room for debriefing before they would allow Ratchet to see them. Their armor was scuffed and scorch marks were present from laser fire, but nothing serious. It seemed that any injury that could have become serious had been taken care of, presumably by Phage herself.

Prowl slapped his hands down on the table, causing Phage to jump at the resounding contact. "What happened out there. Teletraan-1 detected laser fire in sector 3 through 7!"

Windcharger was the first to respond. "We were found out by that blasted Soundwave is what happened! As soon as he detected us we had the whole Decepticon squadron on our tailpipes!"

"What about Hound, Bumblebee and Spike?"

"Hound told us to split up." Phage supplied dully. She had been extremely quiet up till that point, and Prime took note of the distant look in her optics. She looked drawn and incredibly aged for somebody of her youth. "Bumblebee and Spike went one way, off towards Avalanche Path, and Hound took another route leading further up the mountain, I think he was heading in the direction of Look Out Mountain. Windcharger and I took the obvious and least difficult path back."

"Probably why we got here before them."

"Assuming there not already caught!" Phage snapped at the minibot.

"What about the Decepticons following you?" Asked Trailbreaker calmly.

"It was Starscream, Runabout and Runamuck." Windcharger huffed. "Took care of them easily enough with my magnetic pulse. Sent their systems fritzing and we got back a-okay."

Optimus stepped up at this point, arms still crossed over his chestplate as he inquired, "You said Starscream was there, which means that whatever the Decepticons are doing in sector 3 is serious. Did you at least find out what the Decepticons were up to?"

Windcharger and Phage glanced sidelong at each other for a long moment before looking back at the officers circling around the other side of the table. Windcharger was the one to speak. "Before we were caught we heard a bit about what they were doing from Megatron himself."

"Megatron was there?!" Prowl gapped, showing a hint of emotion, but it was quickly whipped away as Prime lifted his hand for silence. The Autobot commander-in-chief's optics narrowed intently on the both of them as he leaned over the table, both hands holding himself up.

"What did you find out?"

"They were constructing some sort of satellite thing."

"Meagtron said it was a spacebridge." Phage grumbled out, interrupting Windcharger.

The minibot shifted a glare her way. "It didn't look like one."

"Spacebridge?" Quizzed Prowl.

Both scouts made to answer at once but Prime stopped them and then pointed at Phage. "Clarify, and start from the beginning."

"Alright." She said as she propped her elbows up on the table and began to illiterate with her hands again. "Here's what happened. We worked our way around sector 3 until we spotted the Constructicons going in and out of the side of this mountain. We snuck in and found Megatron, the jets –"

"Jets? Which ones?" Prowl pressed.

"Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp." A nod from the Autobot tactician signaled for her to continue on. "There was all the Constructicons too, and Soundwave obviously, but we didn't notice him at first. Megatron was talking to Shockwave over a monitor about their plans, finalizing details. Hound tuned in on them and we overheard them discussing the operational status of Project: Primus."

Optimus slide Trailbreaker and Prowl a side glance before looking back to Phage. "Project: Primus?"

She nodded her head. "Megatron mentioned something about three locations where they've built these massive spacebridges."

"Why haven't we detected them?" Grumbled Prowl.

"Cloaking." Windcharger supplied. "We passed through it when we were following the Constructicons."

Phage agreed with a curt nod before picking up, her face entangled with an arrange of emotions running from nervousness to fear. "They've built these three spacebridges in a triangular formation in precise locations around _The Ark_. When activated, their supposed to transport everything within their interior radius to whatever destination the Decepticons have set."

"In this case, the sun." Windcharger declared dramatically.

Optimus revved his engine as he stood back, crossing his arms. "Project: Primus. I've known that Megatron's had a twisted sense of humor but this just takes the oil cake."

"Is this really a liable threat?" Posed Prowl. "The spacebridge technology in and of itself is incredibly dangerous and still in its experimental stages. These spacebridge transmitters will more than likely just blow up on them than transport us into the sun."

"Correction." Spoke up Phage, taking Prime and the other officers by surprise. "It was in its experimental stages when you guys first left Cybertron. Four million years has passed since then, and Shockwave's quite the techno-genius from what I've heard. He's had quite some time to perfect it, and with him back on Megatron's side…" she let it hang, allowing her insight to manifest in Prime, Prowl, and Trailbreaker's CPUs.

"She has a point, Prime." Grumbled Trailbreaker.

"We can't be serious about this!" Prowl pressed, seeming stressed as he took to his feet. "The amount of Energon required to power this is just inconceivable. I can't see why Megatron wouldn't just take it rather than use it to launch the entire mountain and us with it into the sun. With a lot less he could power all his troops and just send them against us in an all out assault and take us that way! Why waist energy on some project that might not even work?"

"It's flashy." Prime, Prowl, Trailbreaker, and even Windcharger slid Phage looks, to which she slipped a little further down in her chair for, as if she were trying to disappear without actually activating her invisibility drive. "I'll…ah, I'll just shut up now."

Prime turned his attention away from her and back on Prowl. "It's not just the mountain that Megatron will be launching, Prowl, but as Phage has said, everything in the interior radius. That means the forest, Central City, _The Ark_ –everything **and** everyone! A credible risk or not, Megatron believes he can do this and is. Even if it doesn't work, think of the damage from the explosion of these transmitters. We can't risk any further inaction. The scout party has already been spotted. Megatron knows we're going to be coming and will be prepared." Optimus's optics flashed brilliantly. "Prowl, I want all able Autobots primed and ready for battle within the hour. Trailbreaker. Get me the spy-cams in the sky. I want those other two spacebridge locations found as of _**yesterday**_!"

Prowl and Trailbreaker saluted simultaneously as they both echoed out smartly, "Sir, yes sir!"

Optimus swept his optics over each individual in the room as if it would be the final time he'd see them in such prime condition. "Your all dismissed."


End file.
